How to Swing Long Irons Properly!

In my mind, irons are a frustrating golf club to learn for the begining golfer. On one hand, the stiffness and length inherent in an long iron should make it relatively easy to hit a golf ball and send it a long way.

However, due to the tiny sweet spot and low loft on the club face, these are actually some of the hardest clubs to hit. Hence, the rise of hybrid clubs.

Many golfers are now choosing to leave the long irons in the garage.

However, I believe that if you can learn to hit them properly, long irons provide a level of control over height and distance that the bulky hybrids can’t match.

This is particularly true in shots where you have a good lie, but there are obstacles such as tree branches directly overhead, or any combination of obstacles and long distance.

This type of problem is what long irons were created to solve. If there is distance but no obstacles, one of the woods should provide the needed distance.

If it is not feasible to purchase the time of a top-notch teaching professional, there are other ways to address the important and fundamental issue of learning to swing a golf club effectively.

Watch this video (fast forward past the 1st minute or so of fluff :

The thing I took away from this video was that my head movement should start behind the ball and almost never move from that spot.

Also, note how the his swing moves around his spine. It is extremely fluid and not at all jerky. His arms and the club move around his spine like a spoke on a bicycle wheel which is pulled by the hub. This is very instructive.

Lastly, note how perfectly he strikes the ball with the iron and only then takes the divot. Note that even though the ball looks like it is sitting on the ground it is actually sitting on a tee, which comes out of the ground as part of the divot. Amazing!

I worked strictly on copying his beginning head position and keeping it as still as possible throughout my swing and my ball striking with a long iron improved tremendously – – instantly.